Summerhill report:

Summerhill 1-13 Duleek/Bellewstown 1-13

Summerhill came away from Ratoath on Sunday evening wondering how they managed not to win this Senior Championship Round 4 game against Duleek/Bellewstown despite having a commanding lead early in the second half when the lead 1-12 to 3 points. Duleek out scores them by 1-10 to 0-1 in the final twenty two minute to grab a draw with a long range free from over 45 meters a minute into injury time.

Summerhill began the match well scoring the first three points, one from David Larkin and two from Barry Dardis. Summerhill then went 10 minutes without scoring in which time Duleek/Bellewstown scored two point of their own.
Duleek had a goal bound shot and the subsequent follow up well blocked by Summerhill defenders and  Summerhill broke forward and following good work by David Larkin the ball was passed to Barry Dardis who cut in from the right before firing the ball to the back of the Duleek net in the 16th minute. This goal sparked Summerhill into life and they added a further four points without reply in the lead up to half time from Kevin Ryan, Damien Byrne, Stephen Husband  and another Dardis point. This left the half time score 1-7 to 0-2.

Summerhill started the 2nd half where they left off in the first and scores three quick points in the first four minutes, another Dardis point along with points from David Larkin and Sean Dalton. A Duleek free was followed by two further Summerhill points from Kevin Ryan to extend their lead to twelve points at this stage.

At this point Duleek threw caution to the wind and committed more men forward and were rewarded with a goal ten minutes into the half to narrow the gap. This goal was added to by four unanswered points to close the gap to five points before Paul Rispin scored a Summerhill point to extend the lead back to six points with ten minutes remaining. Duleek continued to pour forward scoring several fine points from play to continue to close the gap.

Summerhill has several chance to extend their lead but fail to register a score. David Dalton made a great run through the middle but fired wide with his effort, the Duleek keeper made a good save from a Sean Dalton effort as well as several attempt at point falling short into the keepers hands. Duleek kept plugging away and into added time were rewarded when they landed a long range free to claim a draw that seemed unlikely 20 minutes earlier.

Summerhill will face St Peters Dunboyne in their last group match in 2 weeks time  needing a win to be sure of progressing to the quarter finals.

Full-time Score:

Summerhill 1-13 Duleek/Bellewstown 1-13

Summerhill: Tony McDonnell, Padraig Jennings, Willie Ryan, Eamonn McDonnell, Padraig Geraghty, David Dalton, Stephen Husband (0-1),  Damien Byrne (0-1), Michael Byrne , David Larkin (0-2), Kevin Ryan (0-3), Ross Ryan,  Paul Rispin (0-1), Sean Dalton (0-1), Barry Dardis (1-4,  0-1 45)

Substitutes: Brian Ennis for Kevin Ryan, Ronan Ryan for Ross Ryan

Duleek/Bellewstown report:

Duleek Bellewstown 1-13 Summerhill 1-13

Duleek Bellewstown just failed in their bid to overturn Summerhill on Sunday evening in the Hoganstand SFC match played in Ratoath,   recovering from a 12 point deficit after 12 minutes of the second half to outscore their opponents 1-10 to 0-1 in that final third to snatch a draw with the final kick of the game.

With little or no injury time being added  a draw was probably a fair result given that they had played second fiddle to the Hill for the previous forty minutes.

Summerhill had opened very strongly and had three points on the board in the first five minutes in addition to kicking three wides in that time with Barry Dardis and Paul Larkin doing the damage on the scoring front. It took about five minutes for Duleek Bellewstown to get some kind of position or even possession  in the game and on 7 minutes  Con McGinley pointed after good work on the left-hand side by John McDonnell . After John Flood  reduced the deficit t to a single point in the 10th minute when  he was fouled  on the right-hand side and pointed the resultant free, it looked like Duleek Bellewstown were getting to grips with the Summerhill game plan.

The turning point of the half came just on 15 minutes when John McDonnell drove at the Summerhill defence and shot for goal which was blocked and then Anthony Burke side footed the ball against a Summerhill defender and it was cleared by the defence down the field for Barry Dardis to cut in from the right-hand side and score a pile driver at the near post.

This was followed almost immediately by two points from Summerhill and so from a position of being potentially level they found themselves six points adrift by the 18th minute. With Summerhill having a near stranglehold on their midfield area in the first half they tagged on further points in the 25 minutes and the 29th minute to leave themselves eight points clear at the break. However they would rue the 8 wides that they shot in that first half.

Duleek Bellewstown introduced Michael Dowling at half-time to try and curb the influence of the Summerhill midfield but Summerhill opened the second half in the same fashion as the first and tagged on three further points in the first three minutes through Barry Dardis and Paul Larkin.

John Flood managed to stem the flow with a pointed free on five minutes but further  Summerhill points in the seventh and the 11th minutes extended their lead to 12 with 12 minutes gone. At this stage it looked like the task for Duleek Bellewstown was to gain respectability on the score sheet.

However the squad had other ideas. The revival was triggered by a mazy run by Mark Collins who picked up a ball on his own 45 yard line and drove at the Summerhill defence beating at least 4 or 5 with his pace. As he reached the Summerhill 21 yard line he offloaded to Stephen Nolan who drove over the bar when it looked as if a goal was on.. Direct from the kick out Collins again picked up the breaking ball on the left-hand side and drove forward and buried the ball to the net and this was immediately followed by JohnFlood point in the 15th minute and the comeback was on in earnest.

Further points by Nolan fisted effort  and two from Con McGinley between the 16th and 19th minutes provided additional momentum  for the Duleek Bellewstown contingent and while  a Paul Rispin point  managed to stem the flow for Summerhill  on 18 minutes it looked as if the Duleek Bellewstown  response  might  be stopped . But that point proved to be Summerhill's last score of the game .

With Michael Dowling and Podge Howard causing problems to the Summerhill midfield and breaking ball away from the area to his onrushing team mates Duleek Bellewstown again picked up the pace. Picking up on one of those midfield breaks n the 21st minute a pass John McDonnell found Cianan Byrne on the right and he placed John Flood who pointed off his right foot to cut the gap to 4.

From the kick out Summerhill attacked down the left-hand side and from the resultant attempted point which dropped short Anthony Dowling released Podge Howard who was fouled in the middle of the field.  From the resulting quick free kick Podge found John McDonnell who flicked on to Kevin McCann to point and the game was down to a single score with 7 minutes left.

A massive 45 yard point from Shane Crosby came when, again, Anthony Dowling fielded another attempted point which had dropped short and he again released the onrushing Podge Howard who found Cianan Byrne on the right-hand side who interplayed with Shane Crosby and Crosby drove a massive kick from the 45 yard line about 5 yards in from the sideline directly over the black spot..

From the resultant Summerhill kick out the ball found itself in the Duleek Bellewstown defensive area  and the attack was stopped when a free was awarded to Summerhill about the edge of the semi circle about 30 yards out jut. It looked like the comeback was at an end but unbelievably the free was kicked  narrowly wide and set the game up for a tense last three minutes.

From the kick out Anthony Dowling found his brother Michael on the left hand side and he offloaded to the Mark Collins who found John Flood free on the right-hand side and he popped a point in the 27th minute to bring Duleek Bellewstown to within a point of the opposition.

On resumption Michel Dowling again managed to break the ball forward and while Summerhill defence managed to force the play outfield  Con McGinley was fouled on the Summerhill 45 yard line about 10 yards in from the touchline. Stephen Nolan stepped up and calmly slotted the ball directly over  the black spot to bring the sides level  as the clock turned 30 minutes and when the following kick out came referee Joey Curley blew the long whistle and the spoils were shared.

That point gained means that Duleek Bellewstown now face Wolfe tones in their final match of the championship needing a win and for other results to go their way to progress to the quarter-finals.

Duleek Bellewstown: Anthony Dowling, John McDonnell, Brian Moore, James Murphy, Shane Crosby(0-1), David Moore, Sean Kennedy, Stephen Nolan(0-3) , Kevin McCann (0-1), John Flood(0-5) , Mark Collins(1-0 134 912), Stephen Mc Ardle, Podge Howard, Con McGinely (0-3) , Anthony Burke.

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